PERSECUTED CHURCH - Mother sentenced to Death for the Name of Jesus

Please remember this sister in prayer, Asia Bibi, a wife, a mother and a believer, in Jesus Christ.  I heard of her case from recent news reports and learned more in detail From Voice of the Martyrs website where we read:

Asia Bibi, the wife and mother who was imprisoned and charged with blasphemy in June 2009, was sentenced to death on Nov. 7, 2010, according to Asia News.

Please Pray!
Pray that Asia Bibi and her family will find comfort and peace in the Lord. Pray that her sentence will be overturned, and pray for a repeal of the blasphemy law that has been abused repeatedly to cause undue
harm to many Christians.

Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih, and their children are constantly on the run in Pakistan due to death threats. Other vocal supporters of amending the blasphemy law have had to flee the country because of threats to them and their families.

You can learn more about Asia Bibi, how to pray, and how to intercede in her behalf with the Pakistan Government on the Voice of the Martyr's Website:

http://www.persecution.com   - Search for "Asia Bibi" to find several VOM articles.

Asia Bibi's Husband and daughters pictured below when she was first arrested in 2009.

Pilgrim's Progress: The man named Temporary

Back when I first read Pilgrim's Progress and times prior, I struggled with the concept of "Eternal Security" or "Once Saved Always Saved."    I remember as I read through Pilgrim's Progress, being struck by the realization that John Bunyan didn't really portray those doctrines in the characters within his book.   In fact, as I read, I begin to realize Bunyan allowed for a Temporary Faith.   Nothing of this "I-led-him-in-the-sinners-prayer-myself-thus-he-is-once-saved-always-saved" in Bunyan.   Bunyan did certainly embrace eternal election.  Bunyan understood that salvation is of the Lord and not a matter of man's personal decision.  Bunyan could affirm the security of the believer but grounded it fully upon the WORK of Jesus Christ and the eternal electing-love of God and not the mere decision or will of a sinner.    At first intrigued, but then so thankful was I, to have Bunyan express the Fulness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Bunyan expressed truly a Grace that makes a man something he wasn't before, that causes a man to be no longer what he was.  I realize today that this really is everywhere found in the Holy Scriptures, and all the time preached by those who understand them correctly.  But back then, as far as I could tell, Decisional-Regeneration ruled the day, and I had no voice to tell me otherwise except by the grace that caused me to keep reading, keep looking, keep seeking to understand and make sense of it all.

AND SO, still walking through the enchanted ground we pick up the conversation between our two  hero's Christian and Hopeful as they consider the case of the man named TEMPORARY.

Christian: Well then, did you not know, about ten years ago, one Temporary in your parts, who was a forward man in religion then?

Hopeful: Know him! yes; he dwelt in Graceless, a town about two miles off of Honesty, and he dwelt next door to one Turnback.

Christian: Right; he dwelt under the same roof with him. Well, that man was much awakened once: I believe that then he had some sight of his sins, and of the wages that were due thereto.

Hopeful: I am of your mind, for (my house not being above three miles from him) he would oft-times come to me, and that with many tears. Truly I pitied the man, and was not altogether without hope of him; but one may see, it is not every one that cries, “Lord, Lord!”

Christian: He told me once that he was resolved to go on pilgrimage, as we go now; but all of a sudden he grew acquainted with one Save-self, and then he became a stranger to me.

OBSERVATIONS:
Temporary was "a forward man in religion."   Back then says Christian, you could mark him as a RELIGIOUS MAN  and a man who was very OPEN About it.

Hopeful knew him,  and if the truth be told, Temporary actually lived in a town named GRACELESS.  And through the name of this town we know that this open and very religious man was actually without GRACE!

The man, Temporary, did have "some sight of his sins"  and even some understanding of "the wages that were due thereto."


Temporary came often to HOPEFUL with "many tears."   And as my eleven year old pointed out, Hopeful was true to his own name and  "was not altogether without hope of him."  

BUT the scriptures tell us "not every one that cries, "Lord, Lord!"  Mat 7:21

And Christian lastly says, Temporary spoke of being resolved or decided to become a Christian himself, but then all of the sudden he turned back. 


Lord willing, in a future post, we can see some of the reasons why Temporary had only a temporary faith.

PERSECUTED BROTHERS and SISTERS IN CHINA

I'm Praying to Pray:  "GOD give more grace to pray for my sisters, for my brothers in the persecuted church.  More grace to pray for those suffering for Jesus Sake in China."

You can read a great deal more about persecution of Christians in China on the Voice of the Martyrs Website:  http://www.persecution.com


Plus click here for VOM articles about China:

At Voice of the Martyrs you can also read the following telling us about China and how it is considered a Restricted Nation:
 

China was declared the People’s Republic of China in 1949 by Chairman Mao Zedong, who quickly sought to purge society of anything religious. In recent years, living standards have improved in urban areas while little has changed in the countryside, promoting discontent. Political controls remain tight. The human rights record in China is one of the worst in the world. Its system of “re-education through labor” detains hundreds of thousands of people each year in work camps without a court hearing. In Tibet, an autonomous region within China, Christians are trapped between the oppression of Buddhism and the oppression of communism. On May 8, 2009, after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended China remain on the U.S. Department of State’s list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said the report was “an attempt to smear China.” Each year, China forcibly repatriates around 4,000 refugees to North Korea — where they face imprisonment, torture and even execution.

Category: Restricted Nation
Religion: Non-Religious/Other 49.58%, Chinese 28.50%, Christian 7.25%
Ideology: Communism
Head of State: President Hu Jintao

More Christians are in prison or under detention in China than in any other country. House churches (unregistered churches), which make up approximately 90 percent of China’s Christians, endure unimaginable persecution. But they stand by their commitment to preach the gospel, no matter the cost. In Tibet, most of the persecution against Christians comes from militant Tibetan Buddhists. On Feb. 11, 2009, Chinese authorities arrested 60 house church leaders, including two South Korean pastors who were attending a seminar in Wolong district, Henan province. Police
officers disrupted the meeting, arrested the Christians and confiscated phones, books and money. Authorities forced the believers to register with the government and pay a fine. Elderly believers were released, but the South Korean pastors were deported three days later for “engaging in illegal religious activities.” They have been banned from entering the country for five years. Other house church Christians remain in detention, and several churches have been forced to close or relocate.

THE PERSECUTED CHURCH of CHINA

 

Albert Mohler wrote about the Persecuted Church in China this week on His Blog.   Persecution that is taking place right in Beijing and right out in the open.   Read about here, and note the excerpt I include below:

Evicted yet again from its meeting place by the authorities, Shouwang announced this month that its congregants would worship outside rather than disband or go back underground. Its demands were straightforward but bold: allow the church to take possession of the space it had legally purchased. Officials responded with a clenched fist. On Sunday, for the second week in a row, the police rounded up scores of parishioners who tried to pray outdoors at a public plaza. Most of the church’s leadership is now in custody or under house arrest. Its Web site has been blocked.

......

Shouwang’s latest troubles began again three years ago, shortly after its application for official recognition was denied. Officers from the Beijing Public Security Bureau burst into Sunday services, pronounced the gathering illegal and wrote down the personal details of everyone in the room, one by one. In the days that followed, calls were made to congregants’ employers or college administrators. Many congregants say they were threatened with dismissal from jobs or school if they did not switch to an official church. Some left, but Shouwang’s ranks continued to grow.

Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ - Let's remember them that are in Bonds.  Let's pray that their faith will remain steadfast in the midst of great adversity.  

Finally hear what this brother said, as quoted also by Albert Mohler:

One Shouwang member spoke with Christian courage. He told The New York Times, even as his doorway was blocked by police: “I am fully prepared to go to jail for my church. I belong to the Lord, and if this is what God intended, so be it.”

Unto Him We Live: God's Work of Grace in Adoption

UNTO HIM WE LIVE

There are a handful of incredible blogs I'm blessed to read on a regular basis.  One of those which really challenges me, teaches me, wounds me, rejoices my heart, and stands as an example is Unto Him We Live.

Unto Him We Live is a family blog, and you will have opportunity to read posts by both Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who are the parents, as well as many insightful posts by several of their children.   But I want especially to draw your attention to those posts that speak specifically to adoption.

Check out especially this post, describing how after 5 1/2 months since coming home with the Beavers from Russia, little Oksana is beginning by wonderful grace to put three words together in English - Praise the LORD, Hallelujah. Reading this you will be praising and rejoicing: A Helen Keller Kinda Week

And this post where we get a little glimpse of the POWER OF GOD as we read of the transformation of a little orphan girl into a beautiful believer in Jesus Christ: Transformation


And then this post really challenged me last Father's Day.  We read of this young ladies love and appreciation for her Father, and find ourselves called to higher and holier Fathering to the Glory of God.   51 reasons why Tatiana Loves her Dad, called DEAR DADDY.

Actually as I page back through all the posts at "Unto Him We Live" with the label "Adoption" I'm hard pressed to pick out only a select few.   I strongly encourage you to go back to the beginning of their blog, which started just over 1 year ago, on April 15, 2010 with this post discussing the possible halting of Russian Adoption:  click here,   and read the entire story and then keep reading as this work of God's Grace continues.  Thanking God to have such friends.      

To see All posts with the Label Adoption: Click here

Friendships in the Family

I love my kids!  I delight to see them enjoy sweet friendship with one another.   The quote below reminds me not to take such family-love for granted.   Care is required - WE MUST WIN one another's Love inside the home doors!!   Good counsel and good exhortation to me as Father, to seek to cultivate such love within the home.   I fear I've often failed through neglect - but other times I rejoice to see and hope that sibling friends in our home are best friends.   The lack of Family Friendships is wounding but the practice and display of GODLY brotherly love between brothers and sisters towards each other works to the GLORY OF GOD.  God give us more of this daily! 

“In every home where there are brothers and sisters, there is a field which needs only wise, patient culture—to yield life’s richest and loveliest things. Are we cultivating this field or is it lying neglected, covered, perhaps, with weeds and thorns, while we are spending all our strength in trying to make harvests grow on some bare, rocky hillside?…

Friendships in the family require care and culture—as do other friendships. We must win one another’s love inside the home doors just as we win the love of outside friends. We must prove ourselves worthy; we must show ourselves unselfish, self forgetful, thoughtful, and kind, tender, patient, helpful. Then when we have won each other we must keep the treasure of affection and confidence, just as we do in the case of friends not in the sacred circle of home.”
J.R. Miller , 1882 (source)

HT: Becky  -- thank you Becky for the great example.

Young and Married

I have been BLESSED with some incredible friends who write WONDERFUL Blogs.  As a means of expressing my appreciation for the efforts they put forth  I've added a "Great Blogs To Follow" listing to the right. Plus today I want to draw your attention to a wonderful new blog called, Young and Married.   I encourage you to go check it out.  Their purpose statement  especially captured my attention because by the Grace of God in our house we do Love Marriage:

 "...we live in a culture which strongly encourages couples to wait until much older to be married and frowns upon those who desire to marry young. We wish to turn this notion upside down and show that not only can a young couple survive when married young, but thrive. We also wish to encourage young men and women to pursue marriage if God is calling you to it, and not to wait, merely because it is culturally acceptable."